Big Lake Honors Group For Saving Teenager Who Collapsed During Soccer Match

(KNSI) – Big Lake honored seven people who helped save the life of a teenager after he collapsed during a soccer game.

Officers William Saliterman and Tyler Hecht were presented with the Big Lake Police Department Life Saving Award. EMS Personnel Autumn Hanson and Andrea Engholm, dispatchers Joe Hinchcliff and Tami Sutherland, and onlooker Lindsey Paggen were presented with the Citizen Commendation Award.

Big Lake Police Department

On May 8th, first responders were called to Liberty Elementary School’s soccer fields when 13-year-old Kaidin fell to the ground unconscious and was not breathing.

Without hesitation, several bystanders rushed in to help, with one calling 911 and another starting CPR. Dispatchers Hinchcliff and Sutherland stayed calm while relaying critical information to first responders. When officers Saliterman and Hecht arrived, they immediately grabbed an Automatic Electric Defibulater. The pads were applied, and a shock was given while Paggen and others helped officers and EMS personnel Hanson and Engholm as they arrived on the scene and prepared the boy to be rushed to the hospital.

Officers continued CPR and assisted EMS on the ride to Monticello Hospital, where Kaidin was then airlifted to Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis.

The next day, the department learned he survived, was awake, responsive, and on the road to recovery. Kaidin was released from the hospital on May

Big Lake Police Department

16th and was able to finish his last four days of the school year. Doctors say he has suffered minimal, if any, complications.

The BLPD says the actions of dispatchers, officers, EMS and bystanders at the fields saved Kaidin’s life.

The presentation was the first time many had seen him since that day. The team who helped Kaidin gave him a soccer ball signed by each of them as a gift for him to keep.

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